Special offer

Mobile Home Parks as Development Property

By
Real Estate Agent with Bend River Realty Inc.

For many in Central Oregon, living in a mobile home park is their only option financially. The soaring prices of existing homes, new construction or even available land have made the dream of "home ownership" impossible. The closest they may come will be to purchase a manufactured home and place it on leased land in a mobile home park. So, what happens when the park their home is in decides to sellout for development?

The answer may surprise you. Many of the parks that have been sold have literally forced their tenants to the streets. With no money or new park to move the home to, residents (some of them to be considerable in age) have been forced to sign title of their home to the park and find somewhere to go. Even more appalling is that they receive no COMPENSATION from the park owners. In many cases, they are receiving a bill for the teardown of their home.

When I found out this was happening, I was extremely angered. Essentially turning our back on local citizens, many of whom helped make Bend what it is today seemed beyond WRONG. It happened though and many of those parks that once held residents are being bulldozed as we speak.

Who is responsible for this? The landowner, the developer, the city or county? My understanding is that there is new legislation to prevent this from happening in the future. Unfortunately, hundreds of families have been displaced in the meantime. The damage has already been done.

I would like to hear the thoughts of other realtors on this topic, and if anything like this has happened in your area?

 

 

Comments (4)

Rich Jacobson
Fathom Realty West Sound - Poulsbo, WA
Your Kitsap County WA Real Estate Broker
Yes, it's a very unfortunate situation. But such is the risk associated with leased land. As long as the landowner provides them adequate time, per the lease agreement, to find other living arrangements, it's their land and they should be able to do with it as they please.
Feb 17, 2007 06:58 PM
Glenda Crowell
John L. Scott, Bend - Bend, OR

Rich is correct about the risk! Should you have a buyer desiring a manufactured home park verify the lease agreement terms and length of land lease. Manufactured home parks may not be the affordable home choice and aa a matter of fact affordability may be a thing of the past. Compute the cost of purchasing and placing a manufactured home in a park. The numbers are changing. For those on fixed income the answer may be headed in an entirely new direction.

G.

Feb 18, 2007 01:24 AM
Kelli Fronabarger
Bend River Realty Inc. - Bend, OR
Realtor - Bend Oregon

Great comments. Thank you.

Feb 18, 2007 02:39 AM
John DL Arendsen
CREST "BACKYARD' HOMES, ON THE LEVEL General & Manufactured Home Contractor, TAG Real Estate Sales & Investments - Leucadia, CA
Crest Backyard Homes "ADU" dealer & RE Developer

Hi Kelli,

I'm way late for this one but it just popped up on my radar so here goes anyway. 

By answering your posts we are both earning points and building SEO and Google Juice. I'm new to this whole blogging thing but I'm starting to learn how it works a little more everyday. 

My wife Janis runs our Lender Relations division. We provide affidavits of affixture, engineered certification, 433a documentation for California and foundation installation retrofitting and repair Nationwide and would love to work with you should you ever need our services.

Today's "Manufactured" "Factory Built" Home is constructed exactly like any Site-Buit (Stick Built) Home. In most cases even better inasmuch as they are built in a indoor climatically controlled environment and inspected by a liecensed HUD inspector through every phase of construction. 

As a RE Broker, Manufactured Home Dealer, General Contractor and Manufactured Home Contractor in California, Arizona, Oregon and Florida for the past 25 years I can assure you that having built equally as many site built projects as I have Manufactured Home projects that I would select a manufactured home any day. 

 

As for financing? There are plenty of lenders out there willing to finance MH's if they meet the following requriements. http://activerain.com/blogs/johnarendsen

Please feel free to log onto our Truliahttp://www.trulia.com/blog/onthelevelcontractors/ or Active Rain bloghttp://activerain.com/blogs/johnarendsen for more comprehensive information about the MH Industry. 

Or you can check our our website and give us a call or drop us an email. We are RE Brokers, Manufactured Home Dealers and licensed, bonded and insured General Contractors and have been actively engaged in the MH Industry statewide for almost 3 decades. 

We also do "Lonnie Deals" 
Web Reference: http://www.onthelevelcontractors.com


We Love To Network

Mar 03, 2011 03:32 AM